Phineas and Ferb Wiki:Newsletter submissions/The Sincerest Form of Philately
With Valentine's Day not too far away, I thought I would share some unique valentines I made last year which combined Phineas and Ferb with one of my other casual interests, stamps and stamp collecting. Stamp collecting may be a hobby so nerdy that not even Baljeet would touch it, but I'm sure that Phineas and Ferb themselves would be impressed with what I did last year- rather than putting a valentine in an envelope, I put one on an envelope! Every year, various towns across the United States with romantic-sounding names recieve letters from across the country and even around the world to add a special touch to Valentine's Day mail. Among these is Valentines, Virginia, a town not too far from the border between Virginia and North Carolina (and, coincidentally, about two hours away from one of the many towns in the U.S. which just so happens to be named Danville.), which offers both a heart-shaped postmark and a special red Valentine's heart. Last year, just for fun, I took a few envelopes, sealed them (without anything inside), and placed a removable sticky label which I wrote my address on on the front of each one, then placed them inside a larger envelope and sent it to the Valentines post office. I believe I sent them out in early February so I would have them back in time for Valentine's Day.. I received them back in the mail on the 9th (the postmarks showed the 6th). I then removed the sticky address labels and drew a picture on each envelope, thus creating a unique hand-made Phineas and Ferb valentine. I drew Phineas, Ferb, and Candace singing Gitchee Gitchee Goo on a valentine for a fellow Phineas and Ferb fan, and Isabella on one for another friend of mine with whom the phrase "what'cha doin'" has become a running gag between the two of us- first independent of Isabella, then connected to her. You can see the result here. Upon receiving the valentines back from Valentines, I realized I had placed the removable sticky labels a little too high on the envelope, as the postmark "bled into" the label area. You can see an example of this on the valentine with Phineas, Ferb, and Candace- the lower-right-hand side of the red heart is missing due to this, but I sort of covered it up by adding an extra musical note above Phineas's head. Any stamp would do for a project like this (I just used the standard Forever stamp since it's what I had on me at the time), but if you wanted to add a special touch, you could always use a Phineas and Ferb stamp. It's unlikely that the U.S. Postal Service will honor the dynamic duo anytime soon, but Disney offers a number of licensed customizable products through Zazzle, which include stamps authorized for use as postage by the USPS which include a number of Phineas and Ferb characters and logos as design choices. These are rather expensive, however- a sheet of 20 will cost you $19.95, whereas just buying a sheet of 20 stamps from the post office only costs you the face value of the stamps (.44x20=8.80). The Postal Service does offer a wide variety of designs, however, and if you have some old stamps lying around that you think look nice, you can even use those. If the stamp you want to use is marked at less than 44 cents, however (the current rate to mail a letter), you will need to put an extra stamp or two on the envelope so that it adds up to 44 cents. I'm sure there are other clever ways you could make a Phineas and Ferb-themed valentine, but this is the one I came up with. Much like one of Phineas and Ferb's own projects, it's unique and can be done in a single day. And there's no need to clean up after you're done (hopefully). If you'd like some pointers on how to make a valentine like this of your very own, feel free to contact me on my talk page. However you want to say "hi" or "I love you" or whatever sentiment you want to share with a friend or loved one this Valentine's Day, I hope you have fun doing it. The_Sincerest_Form_of_Philately